Ghent Christmas Market 2026-2027: Dates & What to Expect

The Ghent Christmas market runs from Thursday 3 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, which is nearly a month and takes it past New Year. That end date matters, because Ghent used to close on 31 December and plenty of guides still say it does. The market now stays open to the last Sunday of the Christmas school holidays, so a trip between Christmas and New Year still catches it.

More than 150 wooden chalets spread from Sint-Baafsplein across the Botermarkt and Klein Turkije to the far end of the Korenmarkt, with the wider winter programme running through the historic centre as far as Sint-Veerleplein. Entry is free, there is an ice rink again this year, and the whole thing sits inside Ghent’s low emission zone, which is the one thing that catches drivers out.

Ghent Christmas market 2026 dates and opening hours

The market opens on Thursday 3 December 2026 and closes on Sunday 3 January 2027, a run of 32 days. Both the city’s tourist office and the organisers of the Gentse Winterfeesten publish those dates, and they are the ones to work from.

Daily opening hours are set each autumn and are not identical from year to year. The pattern is a midday or late-morning start and a late finish, with the weekend running longer than midweek and shortened hours on 24 and 31 December, when many stallholders close in the late afternoon. Check the Gentse Winterfeesten site in November for the exact grid before you book a table or a train.

Two evenings are worth avoiding if you dislike crowds: the opening weekend, and the Saturday before Christmas. The quietest hours anywhere on the market are between noon and about 3pm on a weekday.

Where the Ghent Christmas market is

The market fills the run of connected squares through Ghent’s medieval core, so you walk it in a line rather than circling one plaza. It starts at Sint-Baafsplein in front of Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, crosses the Botermarkt beside the town hall, threads through Klein Turkije and finishes at the Korenmarkt.

The winter decorations and the rest of the programme carry on beyond that, west to Sint-Veerleplein and the Gravensteen, and along the Graslei and Korenlei quays. Those two riverside quays are the photograph everyone comes back with: they are lined with guild houses, lit through December, and they are a five-minute walk from the last chalet on the Korenmarkt.

Why Ghent calls it the Winterfeesten, not a Christmas market

Ghent’s official name for the event is the Gentse Winterfeesten, the Ghent Winter Festivities, and the city has used it rather than “kerstmarkt” for about a decade. In French it is the Marché de Noël de Gand. The name covers more than the stalls: the ice rink, the fairground rides, the children’s programme and the winter bars are all part of the same festival, which is why English guides sometimes call it the Ghent Winter Festival.

If you are searching for opening hours and finding a “winter festival” instead of a “Christmas market”, that is why. They are the same event.

One correction worth making, because it circulates widely. The Ghent market is not a medieval survival. Claims that it dates to a winter fair granted by Count Baldwin IX of Flanders in 1199, or that it has run unbroken since 1818 on the Friday before Advent, do not stand up: the run of dates alone contradicts the last part. The Winterfeesten as it exists is a modern city winter festival, and it is a good one, but it is not eight centuries old.

What the Ghent Christmas market costs

The Ghent Christmas market charges no entry fee, and the squares and streets it occupies are public, so you can walk the whole thing without buying anything. What you pay for is food, drink, gifts, the fairground rides and the ice rink, each priced by the operator running it.

Bring some cash anyway. Most chalets take cards, but the smallest ones do not always, and the queue at the one that does is the longer queue.

What to eat at the Ghent Christmas market

The food chalets mix Belgian classics with the pan-European Christmas-market standards, and the difference matters if you came for local food. The 6 below are what you will actually find on the stalls, with the Belgian ones first.

1. Frites with mayonnaise. Belgian frites, twice-fried and served in a paper cone with mayonnaise, are the thing to eat first and the thing that keeps your hands warm. Ghent’s frituren are as good as the market stalls and often cheaper.
2. Belgian chocolate. Hand-made pralines and truffles are sold by the box at several chalets and make the easiest gift to carry home. Ghent’s own chocolatiers in the streets off the Korenmarkt are worth the short walk.
3. Speculoos. Speculoos are the crisp spiced biscuits Belgium eats through the winter, flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and white pepper, and they go with everything hot on the market.
4. Bûche de Noël. The Christmas log, a rolled sponge filled and coated with chocolate buttercream, is the traditional Belgian Christmas dessert and turns up in the bakeries as much as on the market.
5. Raclette. Melted raclette cheese scraped over potatoes with gherkins and pickled onions is Swiss and Savoyard rather than Belgian, and it is on every northern European Christmas market including this one. Order it if you want the most filling thing on the square.
6. Waffles. Belgian waffles come in two shapes: the light, yeasted Brussels waffle dusted with sugar, and the denser, sweeter Liège waffle with pearl sugar caramelised into the dough. Ask which one you are being handed.

Stroopwafels, the thin caramel-filled waffle cookies, are Dutch rather than Belgian, and you will find them here anyway. There is more on the country’s cooking in the guide to Belgian food.

What to drink at the Ghent Christmas market

Warm drinks are the point of a Christmas market in a Flemish December, and the winter bars sell more of them than the food chalets sell food. The 5 below are what to order.

1. Glühwein. Hot red wine spiced with orange, lemon, cinnamon, star anise and cloves, usually served in a mug you pay a deposit on and can keep if you want it.
2. Glühkriek. Warm cherry beer, which is the Belgian answer to mulled wine and the one to order if glühwein is too sweet for you. It is a genuinely local drink and most visitors miss it.
3. Christmas beers. Belgian breweries release stronger, darker seasonal beers each December. Ghent’s beer cafés keep the deeper lists, and Waterhuis aan de Bierkant, De Dulle Griet and De Trollekelder are all a short walk from the market.
4. Jenever. Jenever is the Low Countries’ juniper spirit, the ancestor of gin, drunk cold in small glasses and sold in dozens of flavours. One is enough in the cold.
5. Hot chocolate. Made properly here, with real chocolate melted into hot milk rather than powder, and the version to give children while the adults queue for something else.

What to buy at the Ghent Christmas market

Buy the things that are made here, because the generic Christmas-market stock is the same in every country. The 4 below are what is worth carrying home from Ghent.

1. Chocolate and speculoos. Boxed pralines and tins of speculoos travel well, keep for weeks and cost less than the airport versions.
2. Christmas beer. Belgian seasonal beers are sold by the bottle at several chalets and in the beer shops just off the market, and most of them are hard to find outside the country.
3. Handmade crafts. Pottery, jewellery, woodwork and textiles from Flemish makers fill a good share of the chalets, and they are the reason to walk the whole line rather than stopping at the first food stall.
4. Jenever. Flavoured jenever comes in small bottles, makes an easy gift and is a genuinely local spirit rather than an imported one.

Winter accessories, decorations and candles are on the stalls too, though those are the items you can buy at home.

Attractions near the Ghent Christmas market

Everything worth seeing in Ghent is within a ten-minute walk of the market, because the market runs through the middle of it. The 5 below are ordered by distance from the chalets.

1. Saint Bavo’s Cathedral. The cathedral stands at the market’s eastern end, on Sint-Baafsplein, and holds the Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers, one of the most important paintings in Europe. You can be inside it 30 seconds after leaving the stalls.
2. The Belfry of Ghent. The belfry is 300 metres (0.2 miles) from the market and gives you the view down onto the lit squares, with its carillon playing over them. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France.
3. Saint Nicholas’ Church. The church sits at the Korenmarkt end, forming the middle of Ghent’s famous row of three towers, and it is lit through December.
4. Gravensteen. The moated castle of the counts of Flanders is 400 metres (0.3 miles) from the market at Sint-Veerleplein, inside the winter festival’s own footprint, and its walkable ramparts give you the other high view of the city. There is a full guide to Gravensteen castle.
5. Graslei and Korenlei. These are the two medieval quays facing each other across the Leie, not separate towns as some listings say, and they hold Ghent’s row of guild houses. Walk them after dark.

The wider list of attractions close to the Ghent Christmas market covers what to do on the days either side.

How to get to the Ghent Christmas market

Take the train to Gent-Sint-Pieters and then tram 1 to the Korenmarkt, which is the fastest route from anywhere in Belgium. The station is about 25 to 30 minutes’ walk from the market, and the tram covers it in under ten.

Brussels Airport is 50 kilometres (31 miles) away, with direct trains to Gent-Sint-Pieters taking about an hour. Trains from Brussels city centre take roughly 30 minutes. If you are travelling in from elsewhere in Europe, Omio compares the trains and coaches into Belgium on one screen. There is a fuller guide to Ghent if you are planning more than a day.

If you are driving, check the low emission zone first. Ghent’s historic centre, including every square the market occupies, sits inside a low emission zone. Clean vehicles enter free, polluting ones pay, and any vehicle without a Belgian or Dutch number plate has to be registered in advance regardless of how clean it is. The fines are automatic. Park at a park-and-ride outside the zone and take the tram in, which is what most Belgians do for this market.

Where to stay for the Ghent Christmas market

Book by early autumn if you want to stay in the centre, because Ghent has a small hotel stock and December fills it. The 3 hotels below are within a few minutes’ walk of the chalets and were checked as trading in September 2026.

1. 1898 The Post. A boutique hotel in the neo-Gothic former post office on the Graslei, about 300 metres (0.2 miles) from the market, with a well-known bar upstairs and river views from the better rooms. It now trades as 1898 The Post & Porter’s House. Check rates at 1898 The Post.
2. NH Collection Gent. The closest of the three to the stalls, at Hoogpoort 63 beside the town hall and two minutes from the Botermarkt chalets, with a restaurant, a bar terrace and a gym with a sauna. It was called NH Gent Belfort until the rebrand, so older listings use the old name. Check rates at NH Collection Gent.
3. Ghent Marriott Hotel. A larger hotel on the Korenlei with an art-deco lobby behind a row of preserved façades, about 500 metres (0.3 miles) from the market and right on the water. Best if you want a big-hotel breakfast and a river-facing room. Check rates at the Ghent Marriott.

There is a wider list in the guide to where to stay in Ghent.

Where to eat in Ghent after the market

Eat a proper dinner rather than living on the chalets, because Ghent is one of the better food cities in Belgium and the market food is not why. The 3 restaurants below were checked against the 2026 Michelin Guide and their own sites.

1. Publiek. Publiek holds one Michelin star in the 2026 guide and serves contemporary Belgian cooking in a converted bank with a loft-style room. It is the one to book weeks ahead.
2. OAK. OAK also holds one Michelin star in the 2026 guide, under chef Marcelo Ballardin, and works a seasonal tasting menu that runs Belgian technique through Brazilian ideas. It is in the city centre on the Burgstraat, not out in the countryside as older write-ups suggest.
3. Amadeus. Amadeus in the Patershol district is the opposite kind of evening: a candlelit room in Ghent’s old quarter where the thing to order is the all-you-can-eat spare ribs. All Amadeus restaurants close on 24 and 31 December, which is worth knowing on a Christmas-market trip.

The full list is in the guide to where to eat in Ghent.

Ghent or Brussels for a Christmas market?

Choose Ghent for atmosphere and Brussels for scale, because the two markets are different in kind rather than in quality. Ghent’s market runs through a compact medieval core you can walk end to end in fifteen minutes, with the cathedral, the belfry and the castle all inside the footprint, and the crowds stay manageable outside the peak weekends.

Brussels spreads its Winter Wonders across the Grand-Place, the Bourse and Sainte-Catherine, with a longer run of stalls and a sound-and-light show on the Grand-Place itself. It also draws far more people. If you have one December weekend in Belgium and you want the medieval-city version, take Ghent. Details of the alternative are in the guide to the Brussels Christmas market.

Ghent Christmas market FAQ

When is the Ghent Christmas market in 2026?

The Ghent Christmas market runs from Thursday 3 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. Ghent no longer closes its market on 31 December, so the days between Christmas and New Year are still market days, and guides quoting a 31 December finish are a season out of date.

Is the Ghent Christmas market free?

Yes, entry to the Ghent Christmas market is free and there is no ticket for the squares or the stalls. You pay only for what you consume: food, drink, gifts, the fairground rides and the ice rink, each priced by its own operator.

How many stalls does the Ghent Christmas market have?

The Ghent Christmas market has more than 150 wooden chalets, spread from Sint-Baafsplein along the Botermarkt and Klein Turkije to the end of the Korenmarkt. The wider winter festival extends further west through the historic centre to Sint-Veerleplein.

Can you visit the Ghent Christmas market as a day trip from Brussels?

Yes. Trains from Brussels reach Gent-Sint-Pieters in about 30 minutes, and tram 1 takes you from the station to the Korenmarkt in under ten. A day trip works, though the market is better after dark, so plan on a late train back rather than an afternoon visit.

Is there an ice rink at the Ghent Christmas market?

Yes, the Gentse Winterfeesten runs an ice rink in the city centre for the same dates as the market, 3 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. It returned after several years without one and is part of the winter festival rather than a separate event.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from checking this year’s dates, hours and access rules against the city’s own information in September 2026, and each one contradicts something still being published elsewhere.

1. Do not plan around a 31 December closing date. Ghent now runs to the last Sunday of the Christmas school holidays, which is 3 January 2027 this season. Guides that end the market on New Year’s Eve are working from an older year, and the days after Christmas are among the more pleasant ones to go.
2. Register your car before you drive in, or leave it outside the city. Every square the market occupies is inside Ghent’s low emission zone. Clean vehicles enter free and polluting ones pay, but any vehicle without a Belgian or Dutch number plate must be registered in advance whatever its emissions. Enforcement is by camera, so there is nobody to explain yourself to.
3. Order glühkriek instead of glühwein at least once. Warm cherry beer is the Belgian version of mulled wine, it is on the market, and almost every visitor walks past it for the glühwein they can get at home.
4. Book a restaurant table before you travel, and check 24 and 31 December. Ghent’s two Michelin-starred rooms, Publiek and OAK, fill weeks ahead in December, and the Amadeus ribs restaurants close entirely on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Those two nights are exactly when a market visitor wants dinner.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, a Belgian travel writer based in Flanders. The team covers Belgium for independent travellers, including the Christmas markets, hotels and restaurants worth booking, and re-checks this page against the city’s own listings each autumn when the new dates and opening hours are published.